Project Rate of the Month V1: December

[Simia]

Rate of the Month
​

RotM is a project that looks to bring quality individual rates into the spotlight and recognise the hard work of unbadged raters.

Concept

• Every month, official Team Raters will monitor the rates posted in their respective tiers.
• A few will be chosen that the RMT staff feel exemplify the qualities of an excellent rate.
• These rates will be posted in this thread, along with a paragraph explaining why the particular rate won. This will allow aspiring raters to gain an idea of what constitutes high-quality rates, and hopefully incorporate those aspects into their own rates.
• Official Team Raters are eligible to win, but unbadged raters will have priority.

Prizes

• Winners will earn a place in the Hall of Fame, which will be kept in the OP of every thread, and will earn more consideration for the Ladybug
  
  and Team Rater
  
  badges.
• After gaining three places in the Hall of Fame, a rater will be eligible to earn voice status in the RMT room on PS! on the condition that they've shown an interest in getting involved.

We hope that this project will encourage people to put more effort into their rates and become better and more experienced raters, consequently increasing the quality of rates posted in the forum. Good luck to you all!

Hall of Fame

January - Simia, vsomani (SM OU)
February - Simia (SM OU)
March - patlop2307, Simia (SM OU)
April - lyd, patlop2307 (SM OU)
May - DragonKnightmaster, patlop2307 (SM OU)
June - patlop2307, MFJr King (SM OU)
July - Indigo Plateau , vso (SM OU)
August - vivalospride (SM UU), Charmflash , DKM (SM OU)
September - vivalospride (SM UU), Snowy (SM OU)
October - vivalospride (SM UU), Lyd (SM OU)
November - MFJK (SM OU), curiosity (SM OU)
December -

 

[Simia]

Congrats to MFJK who earned himself a spot in the Rate of the Month's Hall of Fame for December!

MFJK posted a beautiful rate on a team centered around CB Kartana, a powerful wallbreaker that's supported by Tapu Bulu here to increase his Grass moves and thus making it even harder to switch into. However, this makes the team prone to Fire-Types since it is relying on Greninja and Heatran to deal with this type and they are both lacking the recovery to repeatedly switch into Fire-moves. MFJK also noticed the likes of Mega Alakazam and Kartana are big threats, with the former having no switch in and the latter being only checked by Tapu Bulu which is also lacking recovery.

He decides to start off his rate by replacing Landorus-T with Torandus-T, a suggestion that provides a great pibot but also great answer to Kartana which probbaly was the biggest threat of the team. Thanks to Regenerator, Tornadus-T also is a much more reliable Defogger for the team. After that, in the need of improving the matchup against Fire-Moves, MJFK changes Tapu Koko for Mega Alakazam as he felt the Eletric Pokemon was out of place. The pivoting force and Defogger being Tornadus-T now, Tapu Koko was just giving the team more Ground weaknesses. On the other hand, Mega Alakazam is an excellent offensive check to Heatran thanks to its ability Trace, allowing it to be immune to Magma Storm when switching versus it. It can force it out as well with Focus Blast or Calm Mind if not Toxic. Lastly, Mega Alakazam improves team's general speed control by providing a sweeper faster than both Greninja and opposite Tornadus-T, two popular picks in the metagame right now.

Knowing that AV Tapu Bulu is kind of a outdated set, he suggests to make it SpD with a setup move, a set that still deals with the likes of Ash Greninja and Tapu Koko, make better use of Grassy Terrain and consistently check opposite Mega Alakazam with the combinaison of Grassy Terrain + Horn Leech + Protect to heal itself. He then makes a little change of Spikes over U-Turn in Ash Greninja's movepool which is its best 4th option in most cases.
Finally MFJK proposes an alternative suggestion in changing Mega Alakazam for Mega Slowbro which gives more defensive utility to the tea by defensively checking things like Mega Charizard X, Mega Medicham and Heatran as well.

Good rate man, and keep it up unbadged raters for this month ^!^